Well, it’s finally over. Usually I’m sad when we reach the end of Notre Dame’s football season, but this year brings mixed feelings. I find myself relieved and actually a bit happy. I imagine that many Irish fans across the country feel the same way. Now we don’t have to spend all week worrying about the possibility of losing to a sub-.500 team at home. We won’t have to spend our Saturdays befuddled by coaching decisions and frustrated by costly mistakes. Sundays can be spent relaxing with a clear mind and a voice that has not been damaged from yelling the previous day. But before we can move forward and look ahead to next season, let’s take a look back at 2016 and Team 128.
The season started with two controversies with the first being the decision to bring Brian Van Gorder back as Defensive Coordinator and the second being the indecision in naming a starting quarterback for the season opener at Texas. BVG’s defense ranked outside the top 30 in yards per game and points per game in 2015. Mind you, this is a defense that had 5 starters who are currently on NFL rosters, so it’s safe to say that they underachieved. Some may have just written this off as a bad year, but there were signs of systemic problems with BVG’s defense. It was just too complicated for a college football team. Essentially, it was holding back the defense because they were over-thinking on most plays instead of just reacting and playing fast. The defense was trending in the wrong direction, and Brian Kelly failed to see the underlying issues. The same problems persisted in the first four games of the 2016 season. Eventually Van Gorder was fired on September 25th.
Leading up to the start of the 2016 season, many thought that DeShone Kizer would be named the starting quarterback. He took over the starting role when Malik Zaire suffered a season-ending injury 2 weeks into the 2015 season. Kizer performed well in 2015, and he possessed all of the physical traits that NFL teams look for in quarterbacks. Coach Kelly was faced with a difficult decision. If he had named Kizer as the starter earlier in the year, he would have run the risk of Zaire transferring to a different school. I think his indecision was actually worse for the team overall. By not naming a starting quarterback, he took valuable first team reps away from Kizer and left the rest of the team with a sense of uncertainty heading into their season opener. This set the tone for a somewhat underwhelming offensive performance throughout the 2016 season.
It felt as if those two controversial decisions capped the potential of Notre Dame’s defense and offense for the 2016 season. That plus a slew of mental mistakes and bad breaks resulted their worst season since 2007.
Another facet of the team that stood out in 2016 (and not in a good way) was their special teams. ESPN has Notre Dame ranked 104th in Special Teams Efficiency. That metric is based on special teams’ contribution to scoring margin on per-play basis, adjusted for strength of opposing special teams faced. When Duke’s back-up kick returner returns a kickoff for a touchdown, you might have a problem. The Irish were sloppy on special teams throughout the season, and that could be indicative of poor coaching. Jack Swarbrick and Brian Kelly will have some decisions to make this off-season, and I would not be surprised if Special Teams Coordinator Scott Booker is let go.
Despite all of the problems the team faced in 2016, I remain hopeful that the Irish will be much improved come next season. Because, let’s be honest, it will be hard to be any worse.
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